iconic guitar.com is a virtual collection of some of the coolest and most significant musical instruments in history. Follow on Twitter @iconicguitars

Rick Nielsen - Hamer Standard

Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick has played his 1978 Hamer Standard over 3,000 times live on the band's "Dream Police" track.

Rick based the checkerboard design on his childhood experiences, when he would watch test patterns on TV, as well as an alternative to Buddy Guy's polka dot guitar design...

"My fascination with the checkerboard pattern, which is pretty much my signature, began when I was a young kid and the TV stations would go off the air at 10 o’clock on a Sunday night. I would sit there sometimes and just stare at the bug races or the Indian test patterns. I knew if you stared at them long enough, something good or bad was going to happen. I guess I could have gone with polka dots like Buddy Guy, but I always felt like there was too much empty space between them."